2023 Christmas card progress

I make my cards! I just finished my cards for the 2Peas swap last night! I’m in the second group. I mailed the international ones today, will mail the rest Friday. Am starting on family and friends cards tonight. I have some new stamps/dies/stencils and am excited to play with them.

I only sent photo cards when my kids were little. Like you said, it’s fun to look at them year after year.

I know some on this board are in the 2Peas swap, but wish we had a swap for everyone who posts here on the card forum. I know some don’t go over to the NSBR side.

I am making 60 cards this year. It has taken me MONTHS! My mock up was simple....but 60 of them is not lol It has embossing, stenciling in 3 colours, stamping and finally the sentiment was foiled. What was I thinking? Like I said - 1 wasn't bad to mock up...but they look AMAZING.

I started in August. I will be finished them tomorrow.
I cut the papers and embossed them at our 2 day Soul Weekend in August.
I took them on my cruise in September to stencil on sea days...I didnt get near as many done as I though I would.
I spend our last Soul Weekend (2 days of 10-12 hours) stenciling.
I have spend a couple of our Tuesday craft nights working on them (2-3 hours each).
Tomorrow, I will finish. I WILL FINISH.

People better frame these.

I went to a retreat this weekend and finished 50 holiday cards. I had 30 already made from Pinkfresh & SCT create events. I think 80 is all I will need but I have a few simple ideas if I need to come up with more.

I have not signed or addressed any of my cards so I will work on that this week with hopes of getting them in the mail early next week.

I'm in the 2Peas swap so 50 of the cards are earmarked for that swap.

I made cards earlier in the year - apparently less than I thought I did as I've just pulled them out and counted them and I only have 18 and I'm estimating I need about 50 total. So I'm adding that to my to-do list for THIS week so I can get the International and Hannukah cards out by the weekend.

I usually send about 40 cards. I'm designing my card now. I have a few options that I've run by DH to ask his opinion. I think I have it narrowed down to one that "should" be fairly easy to crank out. I've made a few cards already from various crafty groups and classes. But I'll need about 25 more. And the little kids of the families I send to get their own card. So I need to come up with a kid card idea.

I have my address book in Excel so I can print labels. Each event that I send cards (say Easter, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's,etc.) I make a new tab with the date sent. After the address I list a quickie description of the card. So hopefully no one is getting the same card. (My people tell me they've saved all my cards!!!)

We usually receive about 10 cards.

ETA:  My goal this year was to not buy anything to make Christmas cards, since I have so much un-used patterned paper and stamps. 

I have 74 cards completed and 12 in various stages on my desk. I'd like to have 100 ready to go. Not quite certain how many I need this year, but it's between 80-100. We will probably receive anywhere between 40-60 cards. I love holiday mail, so much better than ads and bills.

My Sagittarius birthday cards are done, too. I am working on an all-occasion card set gift, but I'm basing that on a Paper Pumpkin kit.

I have at least one of my January birthdays definitely done and at least one definitely not done. I need to look into those.

I don’t remember how many I did since they’ve been done since September, might be around 30 or so.  I knew November was going to be an extremely busy month for me so I wanted them done early.  I also didn’t want to be tempted to buy new stamps and dies when the Christmas sets started to come out this year. If I run short I have a few leftover from last year I can use.

Since I'm not participating in any swaps this year, and since I'm working full-time now, I'm making only 25 cards. I'm sending 22, and 3 will be extras - just in case I miss someone. I decided to go "simple," which doesn't necessarily mean fast. I learned that the hard way, LOL! In any case, I have 4 left to make, and they will be "simple" foiled fronts using Foil-It sheets and Deco Foil. I'll be playing with my laminator this weekend.

I think last fall, I heard people talking about either the Halloween or holiday card swap and couldn't figure out how I missed it. Maybe that's when someone started posting a thread here whenever an exchange thread gets opened over on NSBR.

I joined for the first time this spring and it was a little weird at first, seeing all these names I'd never seen online. By this fall, my third go-round, they were mostly familiar (spring, summer and fall were all about 25 people), since many folks participate regularly. The holiday list being twice as long, I'm kind of back to "Who the heck are these people?"

But I imagine that if there were separate card exchanges here and there, some people who post in both places would have to make a hard choice (or extra cards!).

I am a little torn myself about whether I'll do the holiday one next year. The difference between 24 cards and 49 feels kind of huge, especially when I consider that the additional folks are mostly new to me.

Haven't started.

We are moving in to our new house in the next couple of weeks....so maybe they will be New Year's cards.

I finished setting up the address label template a couple days ago. I will be sending 90 cards this year; 70 cards to peas and another 20 to friends/family. All will be handmade. We typically receive about 5-8 cards, plus whatever I receive from the peas.

I have about 58 currently made. I usually make an extra 5 in case my count is off or I forgot someone. This year I started on them as soon as I was done sending out the fall cards at the beginning of November. I don't enjoy mass producing cards so tend to make one-off designs, but done in pairs. No two are alike. I make "scrappy" cards - no stamping or techniques - just a lot of patterned paper, layering and clustering of die cuts/tags/ephemera/etc. Some years I don't even bother with a stamped greeting inside - I just hand write everything. I also like to use handmade envelopes that coordinate with the card. I've been doing this for a few years now and it's a part of my card making process. It brings me joy to see a pile of patterned paper envelopes!

I had a bit of realization recently about my xmas card making. I've realized that the cards I enjoy making are when I can take completed "pieces" and cluster them together to make a card. If I have any hope of using the stamps/stencils/foiling/stitching/metal dies that I own but never use in my card making, I need to have those components already made BEFORE I go to make my xmas cards. I've given myself a goal for 2024 to make handmade xmas "supplies" to then have ready to grab and use when I sit down to make xmas cards next November. I'm hopeful this will help me use technique-based supplies that sit unused in my stash because it doesn't otherwise fit into how I enjoy making cards.

If there's anyone on here that isn't doing the card swaps but wants to exchange a card with me, please feel free to PM me!

That sounds like a good idea.  Although I wouldn't be able to join this year, I might be able to next year.  I don't go to the NSBR forum.